Leicester City Women's Rebuild: Sam Tierney's Commitment to the Future

When Leicester City dropped out of the Women's Super League in May, the fall hit hard and fast. Relegation to WSL 2 ripped the squad apart. Fourteen players gone in one summer. Nine of them had been on the pitch for that painful play-off defeat by Charlton Athletic.

Janina Leitzig moved to Manchester United. Hannah Cain, Noemie Mouchon and Jutta Rantala – the attacking core Leicester had hoped to build around – all left for Everton. What remained was a shell of a team and the outline of a daunting rebuild.

And then Sam Tierney said she was staying.

The captain who refused to walk away

While others looked elsewhere, Leicester’s captain, their longest-serving player, signed a new deal until 2028 in July. At 27, with 151 appearances behind her and options on the table, Tierney could have joined the exodus. She chose the opposite.

"I'm not the type to want to jump ship. Since I've been at Leicester, I've created a genuine connection with the club," she told BBC Sport.

She has lived every twist of Leicester’s recent story: promotion highs, relegation lows, constant churn in the dugout. Seven managers since she arrived from Sheffield United in 2020. A surge into the WSL in 2021. A run to the Women's FA Cup semi-finals in 2024. And then, last season, a collapse that mirrored the men’s side.

Leicester’s women won just two of their 22 league games. They finished with a -41 goal difference, blunt in attack and exposed at the back. Their five-year stay in the top flight ended with a whimper, not a fight.

Questions followed. Would they keep playing at King Power Stadium? Would the budget be slashed? What did relegation really mean for the women’s project?

The club’s answer was ruthless but clear: let those who wanted to go, go. Cash in where possible. Start again.

“A family kind of club”

Tierney never pretends the past year has been anything other than grim. But she bristles at the idea that Leicester have become a basket case.

"I think it's difficult because Leicester, at the minute, gets a bit of a bad rep. The club is fantastic and so are the people," she said. "It's a family kind of club and we're just going through a change. I am very proud to play for Leicester."

Her perspective comes with context. When she first joined, Leicester’s women were training on local parks, nowhere near the facilities at Belvoir Drive used by the men. The progress since then is real, even if the league table refused to show it last season.

"When I first joined Leicester, we were training on one of the local parks. We weren't at Belvoir Drive where the men were. The progression is incredible," she said.

That’s why, for her, this reset is not just about survival in WSL 2. It’s about building a version of Leicester that others covet.

"I want to make sure people want to play for Leicester. I want people to stay at Leicester. I want people to be jealous of Leicester.

"I know that's the potential of this club and hopefully we'll get that."

Rebuild on the run

The turnover has been brutal. The rebuild, necessarily, has been rapid.

Six new signings have already arrived. Three more players have joined Tierney in renewing their contracts. Pre-season has been a snapshot of a team still finding itself: a win over Rugby Borough, a draw against Manchester United, a defeat to Liverpool.

But inside the camp, Tierney senses a shift.

"You can see there's been a reflection period, there's been a review and you can see the direction we want to go in. We can feel that. We've changed," she said.

"Players change all the time, every team goes through that, but it's important that everyone coming in has the same drive and desire to commit to it.

"We've got those people and it has been quite refreshing. We want to be a different Leicester and it's time to change the narrative on who we are and how we're seen."

This is not blind optimism. Tierney knows the club’s recent pattern: up, down, up, down. She wants that cycle broken.

She talks about sustainability more than glory. About staying up, not just going up.

"The midfielder" might be her position on the team sheet, but at Leicester she has become something else: the conscience of the dressing room.

"The type of person I am means I'm not happy if I don't feel like I'm finished somewhere," she said.

"The direction the club want to go in and the change that needs to be made to do that, I'm on board with.

"Ultimately, my biggest thing is to make sure people feel the same connection that I have to the club and they want the club to progress.

"The moment that I leave, I want Leicester to be in a better position than when I started here."

Changing the narrative

The emotional toll of the last campaign ran deep. Every week felt like a referendum on their right to be in the division. Every mistake carried weight.

"It's hard as a player. You're trying to give it your all but things just aren't going right," Tierney admitted.

She wants this season to feel different. Not easier – the second tier is unforgiving – but less suffocating. Less about fear, more about identity.

"We want to be an exciting team, we want to be a team on the ball, we want to be a team that's difficult to beat and we want to surprise some people."

The target is obvious: promotion back to the WSL. But for Tierney, how they get there matters just as much as whether they do.

"Of course the aim is to go up. But it's got to be done in a sustainable way because if I sit here this time next year and we're in a worse position, then there's no point.

"We're going to make sure we're ready to challenge at the top of this league, get promoted and stay in the WSL for years to come."

Leicester open their WSL 2 campaign against Sheffield United on 6 September at 14:00 BST. Tierney will walk out against her former club as captain of a side almost unrecognisable from the one that went down.

The exodus has happened. The rebuild has started. Now Leicester must prove that the player who refused to jump ship backed the right project – and that this time, if they do climb back to the top, they are built to stay there.